In this third and last article in a series of features about foreign investment that really is foreign destruction, we’d like to introduce to you another foreign investment initiative mired in scandal already before it has even started: The Energy Center of the Americas (el Centro Energético de las Américas, in Spanish).

Such a center was originally envisioned for Houston, Texas, by Luis Marín, the Venezuelan former head of CITGO, the Venezuela owned Petroleum company in the US. However, in 2003 the idea was cancelled for political reasons and Marín without a job. He relocated to Panama where, working from his office in the Generali tower, he transplanted his brainchild to the Panamanian situation.

Enters the scene Jesús Barderas, a Spanish magnate with interests in tourism, insurance, real estate etceteras in Spain and the Dominican Republic. Barderas, in his turn, is friends with Carlos Santiago Castillo - son of Belgica Castillo who was director of Immigration in the Noriega era - advisor of Panama’s president Martin Torrijos.

Another link between Torrijos and Barderas is Luis Blanco, a noriegista-era corrupto, former minister of public corruption works, advisor of Martin Torrijos and also his liaison in the Dominican Republic where both are reportedly involved in the construction industry.

Torrijos met with Spanish magnate Barderas in Cap Cana, a resort the latter owns in the Dominican Republic. It was the first of more meetings, until in 2005 Barderas presented the project for the Energy Center at a meeting in the presidential palace in Panama.

In 2007, scandal broke. The National Security Council wrote a report about the links between the various players and connected Barderas with a major Spanish corruption scandal, the Malaya case.

More allegations of corruption surfaced when it was revealed that the land for the Energy Center was bought from the father in law of the vice-minister of economy and finance, Manuel José Paredes.

Then, the plans showed an oil pipeline next to the Canal connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific, with a docking station in the Pacific located on the “flower island” Taboga, former home to the famous painter Paul Gauguin. The inhabitants of Taboga fiercely protested until it was officially announced that no oil station would be built on the island.

Stolen land

What has not been revealed so far is that the Energy Center is going to be built on land that has been stolen from its owners and in some cases has not even been purchased legally or illegally.

The Energy Center has bought property in the province of Colón from Diego García de Paredes (the father in law of the vice-minister) and Felipe Virzi of Btesh & Virzi, real estate developers.

But how did they come to own over a thousand hectares needed for the ambitious project? Simple. Most of it was stolen. Here’s how their scheme worked, in the words of one of our inside sources:

“If you look at their map, they have future buildings in their design to the west. Indeed the property where they are building is accessible and at the end of the existing road. Beyond that, they do not own the property and owners west of there all the way to the Tagaropolous reserve that is beside the deep water Puerto Pylon channel have been warned they can sell cheap or risk having their land appropriated.

The way they stole the land legally, is simple. Most of the owners through that undeveloped Atlantic coast inherited their land. Most of the titles go back to as early as 1909. Rarely were titles updated as A) Until a few years ago, it didn’t matter and Sons and grandsons couldn’t afford to change / update the titles. So folks just continue to use or sit on their grandparents land. Plus, so many folks don’t get married, yet live lives together and have children and grandchildren that succession paperwork can be very difficult to pull together. If your parents never married, how can you produce the mandatory marriage certificate? Even birth and death certificates that old could be impossible to come by, however, there are ways around that as I’ve learned.

So, beginning in the late 90’s, when an owner would die…usually the son of the originally owner…they would send in a local campesino who would put up a fence, clear some land and then file a prescripcion adquisitivo…adverse possession. It would go to court in Colon where judges’ palms were greased by two of Panama’s largest land owners, one a former Vice President and of course, Virzi of B’tesh Virzi. They obviously have someone on payroll working in some capacity inside because in my experience, any time anything would occur with a case, the campesino would learn about it within the hour…filings, etc.

The heirs would come screaming to a hearing and the judge would say simply, “You are not the owner of this property and have no voice in this case.” The owner of record being dead of course. In this way, the case for adverse possession went uncontested. It would take about 2 years to complete and at the end, the land was the campesinos’ complete with escritura in his name. The same day the escritura would change in the Public Registry, he would sell to De Paredes and Virzi. The guy [campesino front man] still lives in a shitty apartment above a garage in Sabanitas and can’t afford a car, but I can show you 98 oceanfront hectares he ’sold.’ And he has about 120 more hectares there in the works.

At least one land owner did manage to complete his succession before his land was stolen, but they ended up placing a sequestro on the title due to the fact that the previous adverse possession case was in the system prior to the succession completing. They had screwed up by not registering the first favorable finding with the Public Registry or it could succession could never have concluded to begin with. Apparently, whenever a case goes undefended or is ‘reviewed’ by a public defender, it automatically goes to Panama City for a review. This time consuming process was the only reason this owner got his title updated. It still has a secuestro on it.

And btw, there are at least 60 ocean front hectares with well over 4 kilometers of coastline PLUS the two islands that they DO NOT OWN, that are still owned by locals. Yet both in the industrial park map for the new refinery AND previously in Virzi’s Portobelo Beach & Resort that was to be built on this same property, all that unowned land is shown as part of the project. The last outsider to successfully conclude a promesa de compra venta just to the west of this Bala project was the famous PC dentist, Rojas Pardini. The last remaining land owners are all ‘campesinos’, however, have banded together loosely to attempt to fight this. They are up against Qatar, the Energias Consortium, Occidental Petroleum and the government of Panama.

Just as in our previous examples, the AES hydroelectric dams and the Petaquilla gold mine, the entrepreneurs and officials behind the project tout all sorts of benefits (jobs! infrastructure! development!), but so far the only real effect of these projects is people being chased away, theft, corruption, death and destruction. Definitely not the type of “development” Panama needs.